Since launch (rather than in respect of any support utilised during its set up period), can you please provide a list containing the date, source, general nature, cost and procurement route used for any individual element of external legal advice/support to the Council in respect of its Southwest One contract?

I understand there is a current legal dispute, but feel that the basic information ought could be disclosed by the Authority without prejudicing any ongoing defence activity. For example, if SCC are using external legal support for the existing dispute (which I read was underway on this website incidentally) you might send back a response that includes:

January 2013. Bloggs Lawyers. Advice in respect of defence of legal action taken by Southwest One against SCC. £Xk. OJEU.

Hope this is clear, but only respond regarding any external legal support utilised during the actual operation of the Southwest One contract, rather than any support used to set it up.

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You have a legal right to request to ask to see any personal data which
we hold about you. This called a Data Subject Access Request; phone
Somerset Direct on 0845 345 9166 for more information.

Thank you.

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines, if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

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Thank you for contacting Somerset County Council. I have logged your FOI request with the relevant department. Your reference number is 2342653. If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards

Somerset Direct
Somerset County Council
The Deane House
Belvedere Road
Taunton
TA1 1HE

Thank you for your request for information of which we are dealing with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We are currently dealing with
your request and will be in touch shortly concerning disclosure of the
information you have requested.

The legislation obliges us to provide you with this information within 20
working days, so we will endeavour to send our response to you by

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County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
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This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines, if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

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He believes that the problems arose owing to the way the contract was worded, the actions of the previous Lib Dem administration transferring services to Southwest One that should never have transferred and the failure to clarify the savings sharing element of the agreement. In John Osman's view this was the “equivalent of the Lib Dems writing a blank cheque”

Southwest One, which is 75 per cent owned by IBM and part owned by the county council has been in financial trouble ever since the Conservative administration was elected in 2009 and payments were dramatically cut.

After emailing direct, I received an email to my yahoo a/c today. I'll get my answer 'end of next week latest'. Amazingly close to the May election date as someone else has pointed out here. I may FOI the internal email traffic regarding this request. Someone has been told to slow it down seemingly. Does anyone know if you can FOI email? TM

I am really sorry that it is taking so long to respond to your request. We are just finalising the response to take into account the legal costs in relation to the Southwest One Dispute, which as you know we have only just settled on. We should be in a position to respond to you by the end of next week at the latest.

Subject: No response to FOI request - No reason given - Reasons required.

Dear Information Governance and Council Leader,

My FOI request, submitted on the 13th February 2013 and due for SCC response on the 13th March remains unanswered. This is long overdue, against the law and in any event unacceptable given your pledge to go 'beyond statutory provisions' regarding transparency.

I want to know why this delay has occurred, when you intend to respond and why I'm having to chase so hard.

Since launch (rather than in respect of any support utilised during its
set up period), can you please provide a list containing the date, source,
general nature, cost and procurement route used for any individual element
of external legal advice/support to the Council in respect of its
Southwest One contract?

I understand there is a current legal dispute, but feel that the basic
information ought could be disclosed by the Authority without prejudicing
any ongoing defence activity. For example, if SCC are using external legal
support for the existing dispute (which I read was underway on this
website incidentally) you might send back a response that includes:

January 2013. Bloggs Lawyers. Advice in respect of defence of legal action
taken by Southwest One against SCC. £Xk. OJEU.

Hope this is clear, but only respond regarding any external legal support
utilised during the actual operation of the Southwest One contract, rather
than any support used to set it up.

Our response

Firstly we apologise for the delay in responding to your FOI request, and
can confirm that we can provide some of the information you have requested
at this stage and the remaining response can be made available after
Southwest One Transition arrangements have concluded in June.

As is common with all Local Authorities where there are large and complex
contracts not all legal issues can be serviced in house. External advice
and support is sourced in compliance with SCC Contract Standing Orders and
relevant legislation.

Since the commencement of the Southwest Contract SCC has used external
legal support experienced in their field as follows.

2010/11: Total Spend: £43,101

Burgess Salmon = £2,351

Cedr Solve = £5,000

Foot Anstey = £35,750

2011/12: Total Spend: £94,724

Burgess Salmon = £36,584

Foot Anstey = £20,840

Osborne Clark = £2,479

Trowers & Hamlins = £34,821

2012/13: Total Spend: £22,880

Burgess Salmon = £11,434

Foot Anstey = £9,099

Delmara = £2,347

If you feel your request has not been answered in sufficient detail or if
you wish to clarify the information given, please contact me and I will be
happy to address the issues you raise.

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt
with, or the information you have received, you can ask for an internal
review of our decision.

Please quote the reference number 2342653 in any future communications.

An internal review will then be carried out and we will write to you with
the results of our investigation. If you are not content with the outcome
of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office ([2]www.ico.gov.uk) for an appeal. The Information
commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Finally, please be aware that your response will appear, without your
contact details, on the Council’s website at:

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

2 Your response did not answer my questions as raised. I have no idea what the advice related to. I requested a fairly high level overview of what the advice related to which should not have compromised you and you did not make it clear why the transition arrangements cited are relevant. Please explain.

3 Your response omitted the £2m stated by your leader had been spent most recently on renegotiation. If this had been made public, why is it not part of your response? Please explain.

This communication is intended solely for the person (s) or organisation
it is addressed to. If you are not the intended recipient (s), you must
not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender and copy the
message to: [email address]

By replying to, or sending an email message to Somerset County Council,
you accept that you have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.
In line with the Surveillance and Monitoring Policy, any email messages
(and attachments) transmitted over the Council's network may be subject
to scrutiny.

This email may contain personal and / or sensitive material and should
be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection Act
(1998). If it carries a protective marking of PROTECT or RESTRICTED in
the header, it should be handled according to the Government's
guidelines. If not protectively marked, it can be regarded as
UNCLASSIFIED.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may contain viruses which our anti-virus
software has not identified. You should therefore carry out your own
anti-virus checks before opening any documents. This Council will not
accept any liability for damage caused by computer viruses that come
from any attachment or other document supplied with this email.

We will hold and use your personal data in line with the Data Protection
Act (1988). We will not give this information to any unauthorised person
or body. However, we may use this information to help improve services,
deal with complaints and comments, and prevent and detect fraud or
crime.

You have a legal right to ask to see any personal data which we hold
about you. This is called a Data Subject Access Request; phone Somerset
Direct on 0845 345 9166 for more information.

Thank you.

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines, if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached, and all copies must be deleted immediately.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses, any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Somerset County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

Thank you for your email of 11^th May requesting an Internal Review of the
FOI concerning 2External Legal Support for South west One Contract”

Apologies for the delay in my response as I have been on leave

I will be dealing with your request and will be responding in due course

Yours sincerely

Peter Grogan

Information Governance Manager

County Hall A2W

Taunton

TA1 4DY

New Tel - 01823 359127

Mobile - 07500 882481

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

The documentation contains contact details for the Information
Commissioners Office should you wish to contact them in relation to the
review.

Yours sincerely

Peter Grogan

Information Governance Manager

County Hall A2W

Taunton

TA1 4DY

Tel - 01823 357175

Mobile - 07500 882481

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents. Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.